Leaf rooting experiment

Yesterday's nasty weather here in Arkansas kept me from meeting Rosalie (truongr) at College of the Ozarks in MO. I had gathered a bunch of leaves to take. Rather than throw them out (what I normally would have done) when I had to turn around and come back home because of icy roads, I thought I'd try something different--for me. I have had no luck outside of the paper towel method rooting leaf wedges, or rooting leaves in general. I have been sucessful rooting Streptocarpus leaves in straight perlite, so I thought I would try it with the begonia leaves. So here goes-- leaves are stuck petiole first into moistened perlite. I have covered them with a dome and put them on my light stand. Wish me luck--and if they root I can take plants next time ^_^
Tommie

Wishing you the best of luck.

Ha ha! Hillbilly_gran and I think alike. I agree rather than wasting the leaves I went ahead and rooted them too. I was fortunate that I found a bottom trays with a divider. I am thus able to experiment two ways of rooting leaves. On the right, I am doing whole leaves in perlite. On the left I am doing the paper towel method, which I have no idea how to do. I just wetted the paper towel and placed some cut leaf wedges on top. I pretreated all the leaves thoroughly with Neem ( no more fuzz for me!).
I am adding bottom heat to the tray this time and will only water with bottled water, not tap. We'll see what happens...
So Hillbilly_gran, the next time we meet we can trade planlets instead of leaves!
Do post a pic of your paper towel method when you get a chance.

Heres wishing both of us luck!! I don't have any on paper towels at the moment- but I will start some in the next day or two and post pics in this thread.

hi. hillbilly-gran.-have you ever ate at the ozark caff. jlmcv45. jim.

Oh yeah-- they have great hamburgers!

Good luck on those rootings.

Did you go to the flower show? EFGeorgia?

noooo, It is about 100 miles from me, and I couldn't get anyone to go with me or meet me...whine, whine. Anyway, I went to a free cholesterol screening..
Maybe next year. I haven't been to this in while and it is a very good show.. the last time I went, they had a great head/hat flower display (it was in downtown Atlanta at that time)

I'm anxious to see how the leaf rooting experiments go. I have never successfully rooted begonia leaves and would love to be able to! :)

So far nothing. One leaf looks like it's starting to wilt. All others are OK.

Hi Hillbilly_Gran
Anything on your leaves? I have bottom heat on mine and I find the paper towel difficult to maintain at a constant humidity level. All the moisture ends up on the cover. The perlite side seems to do better. I had a limp leaf wedge on the paper towel side.

Hi truongr-- my leaves are doing OK-- one (Last Laugh)has browned edges--I trimmed them once with scissors, but may end up pulling it out. The rest look pretty good. Maybe if you put several layers of paper towels to hold the moisture? It may be that the bottom heat is too much for the paper towel method. I usually put mine on my light stand and the bottom heat is just the small amount of of heat rising off the fluorescent lights. I am hoping that this perlite works out.
Tommie

Ok I couldn't let you gals have all of the fun. My wife bought this contraption for me at a garage sale. It is test tubes in a free standing holder. I am trying the rooting in water method. Here is a picture.

Wow--that is cool!! keep us informed on your progress! I have never tried the water method so very interested in the outcome.

Cool!!! Love those garage sales and Salvation Army too...

Begoniadude, put a cover over those leaves and you will have better success. If you don't then the water will either sour or evaporate before you know it.

Begoniadude.,, is that Red Heart you have in the background?

Baby jars and the little syrup bottles from Cracker Barrel make good rooting jars too.

On the brug forum they mention putting hydrogen peroxide in the water to keep it from souring-- I have never tried it-- but I have tried their method of using the air-stone for brug cuttings, works great--but think that begonia leaves would be too light.

Not sure of the name of my begonia. It was not labeled.

I've never used peroxide or an air stone. Brugs root in soil just fine too. Water rooting brugs does require changing water often though.

Actually no water changes have been necessary with the air stone. I just add more as it evaporates. I chose the water method for the Brugs with the air stone both as an experiment and because it took up less space on the bench--12 cuttings in a shoe box sized container. All rooted, save one that was a greenwood cutting.

Ok Butch I took your advice and covered my cuttings with zip lock bags. We will see how they do now. Thanks.

Hillbilly, I've done both ways. They are perennial here so I don't need to take cuttings but this year I did since I have a new one (a little insurance). So out of about ten cuttings all made it except one. I put them all in Miracle Gro potting soil with any treatment (did let them callous for a day or two).

Dude, I think you will have better success by covering them. I noticed that trick from my mentor - she simply snips a leaf, puts it in a small jar of water, and places the whole thing in a fish tank with a lid on top or a tray with a humidity cover. She makes it look so easy. I guess this keeps the humidity up and the germs down. If your cuttings were sitting out in the open for a few days you might want to clean the vials again and use clean water.

My own experiment with a few leaves a couple of years ago was a cane (serratipetala), a rex leaf, and a rhizo or maybe another rex leaf. They went in two cups of water and then the two cups went into a glass jar with lid (a fancier cookie jar). This sat on the kitchen counter under a halogen light for months with an occasional addition of water) - roots were long and healthy, no water souring, and not a lot of work was involved either.

It is good to know that brugs are easy-- these were my first--that bug just bit me;) Since I get bitten by lots of plant bugs-When ever I try a new genus-- I do the research & follow ALL the directions-- once I root it succesfully-- I relax and do it like I have always done and the results are usually just as good. It seems that for me sucess and failure are relative-- the more I WANT a certain thing to root-- the more likely it won't. So I tend to get a little initial paranoia. ^_^ I am always up for trying something different-- had heard about using a bubbler for years and never tried it-- since I killed all the fish-and had the stuff-- seemed like the right time. I have found with water rooting (sans airstone) that most things don't need a water change-- if they are going to root. Seems like if the water does get funky the cutting is already history or soon will be.

You are so right on the water turning "funky". If it gets to that point then it is usually too late to save the plant unless the part of the plant out of the water appears healthy and there is enough left after cutting off the rot to try it again. The only time I used an airstone was in the fish pond when it appeared the goldfish and koi were gasping for air or when I changed the pond water and put the fish in a tub for a few days.

What are air stones and where do you get them from?

Air stones are porous rock (like pumice) that has a straw in the middle of it and are hooked up to an air pump (via vinyl tubing) to aerate water for fish. You can get them anywhere they sell aquariums (Walmart, PetSmart, pet stores, etc). A small air pump and stone might run you $10 or so. If you had a large tank then you might want a bigger set up.

I have some related news to report. I have successfully grown a new begonia from a leaf. About three months ago I took a leaf from my Luzonensis plant and put it in water. After about three weeks it had roots. I then took the rooted leaf and planted it in some african violet soil and put the whole thing in a mini terrarium. I then put it under lights and left it alone except to water it occasionally. Last night I checked it and I have three new tiny leaves. When they get bigger I will post a picture. I am so excited. I thought I had lost this begonia but now I have a new one.

YAY!! Way to go Begoniadude-- I love when that happens!!!

Alright - way to go. Treat it like a baby until it has some size on it before potting it up or moving it to another environment.

Dude! God job! I love it it when it happens. For me it's more luck than anything else. But I hope this rooting experiment will teach me something. I decided to unplug the heating matt as some of the leaf wedges got too dry and died. The whole leaf side appears OK so far.

This is so fun being able to talk to people who are actually interested in my hobby.

You are not alone ^_^

congrats on that rooting. There are a few begonia fans here.

It's been two weeks. Nothing has sprouted yet. The leaf wedges are faring worse. Some have dried up. I decided to take off the bottom heat.

I had to discard "Last Laugh" as it was turning brown--everything else looks OK so far.

Last night competed my first week. Leaves all still look good. I will check tonight for roots a little closer.

I have gently tugged on my leaves-- some had a little "roots-istance' The Harmony's Red Robin is sprouting from the top of the leaf. I have never had any luck with plantlets formed that way on the mother plant. I am hoping this time will be different since the leaf seems to be already rooted.